[pronut-hiv] Mozambique: Agriculture Ministry's Plan Against HIV/AIDS

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Mozambique: Agriculture Ministry's Plan Against HIV/AIDS

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
July 26, 2006
Maputo

The Mozambican Agriculture Ministry launched in Maputo on Wednesday its
strategic plan to fight against HIV/AIDS in that sector during the
2006/2010 period.

This includes planning and advocacy for fund raising among the
government's cooperation partners.

Agriculture Minister Tomas Mandlate said that the strategy will help
look at the ministry's human resources at all levels, and also convey
the HIV prevention message to farmers across the country.

"This plan is in line with the national strategy for the fight against
HIV/AIDS", said Mandlate. "But what we want to do is to play our role as
the Agriculture Ministry, which is the food producer, since all infected
people, even if they are receiving anti-retroviral treatment, if they
are not properly fed, will not resist the disease".

He said that his ministry intends to get involved in advocacy,
awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns, introducing among the
producers the need to diversify their crop production as a means to
ensure that infected people have an improved diet. Improvements to diet
were also important for people not infected, since good nutrition would
help them resist HIV and other diseases.

The implementation of this strategy is budgeted at about 420,000 US
dollars for the next two years, and is designed to cover prevention
campaigns against the spread of other sexually transmitted diseases as
well as HIV/AIDS. The strategy also contains a component to fight stigma
and discrimination against HIV-positive people.

The plan has further components dealing with activities concerning
treatment and health care, mitigation of the impact of the disease,
research, monitoring and assessment, management and coordination, as
well as institutional capacity building.

In the first stage, the strategy will concentrate on the 6,200 staff of
the Agriculture Ministry and of the institutions dependent on it at
central, provincial, and district levels.